A new Gallup poll out Tuesday finds that voters would rather have Republicans in power over Democrats for security and prosperity.
When it comes to protecting the nation from military or terrorism threats, 57% of voters said Republicans would do a better job than Democrats (37%).
Republicans also have a 10-point advantage for which party voters think will do a better job keeping the country prosperous, with 51% preferring the GOP to 41% preferring Democrats, according to the poll.
Overall, however, both parties are underwater on favorability, with 44% viewing Republicans as favorable and 39% saying Democrats are viewed favorably.
Independents split, with 34% having a favorable view of Republicans and 34% saying the same for Democrats.
“For their part, independents hold equally low opinions of both major parties, as 34% view each favorably,” the organization said while releasing the poll. “While the Democratic Party has held an edge over the Republican Party among independents since 2008, this is the second consecutive year that both parties are at parity among this group.”
Eighty-seven percent of Republicans view their own party favorably, compared to 84% of Democrats with a favorable view of their party, the poll found.
According to Gallup, the results are a departure from the 88% of Democrats favoring their own party and 82% of Republicans favoring their party in 2008, representing a net drop of 8 percentage points in the last year for Democrats.
The current opinion of voters also goes against the historical trend of Republicans being viewed less favorably than Democrats going back to the 1990s.
The numbers reflected in the poll could foreshadow a change in the Congressional majorities in the House and Senate.
The Washington Post reported that the entire 435-seat House and one-third of the 100 Senate seats will be decided when voters go to the polls in November.
Currently, Democrats have just an eight-seat advantage in the House, and an even 50-50 split in the Senate with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris able to cast a tie-breaking 51st vote, according to the official government website.
Despite some Democratic gains in the polls over the summer, the GOP still has an advantage to reclaiming the House majority, Politico reported Sept. 6.
The poll was conducted on the telephone with 812 adults over age 18 from Sept. 1-16 and has a margin of error of +/- 4 percentage points, according to Gallup.
Reporting from Newsmax.
